Canada’s Austerity Consensus
Paul Martin • Photo by Remy Steinegger How exceptional is Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his crop of Canadian conservatives? For not just large- and small-l liberals, but also some…
Michal Rozworski
Podcast: Pension tensions and privatizations
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/podcast150501-pensions-and-privatization.mp3 I have two guests on two different topics today. First up: Kevin Skerrett, a pension researcher at the Canadian Union of Public Employees. I spoke with him about the…
Canada’s Austerity Consensus
I have a longer piece out in Jacobin today on tracing the roots of today’s austerity consensus in Canada to the 1990s. In a way, it’s me coming to terms…
Budget 2015: A tale of austerity past, present and future
Cross-posted from my blog. I’ve been banging the drum of “slow-motion austerity” for a while and little in the 2015 federal budget suggests any change from the pattern of death…
Budget 2015: A tale of austerity past, present and future
I’ve been banging the drum of “slow-motion austerity” for a while and little in the 2015 federal budget suggests any change from the pattern of death by a thousand cuts.…
The Conservatives’ balanced budget legislation: Silly economics, smart politics
I wrote up the Conservatives’ new balanced budget law for Ricochet. In short, the law is really silly in terms of economics, but simply pointing out its economic stupidity is…
Podcast: JW Mason on business not investing, still disgorging the cash
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/podcast150420-jw-mason.mp3 This week’s podcast is a bit more economics-focused than usual but gets at the heart of what’s going on in the global economy where interest rates are near, at,…
Podcast: The roots of the Greece crisis in European integration and what this means for the future
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/podcast150402-europe.mp3 As the simmering crisis between Greece and the institutions formerly known as the Troika heats up again, it’s a good time to look once more at the roots of…
Transfers, taxes and who pays for austerity
The question of who pays for austerity and how is an enormous one. Promoters of austerity often claim that cuts to universal services are fine if they’re offset by transfers…
Branko Milanovic on inequality and the new global plutocracy
Last week I interviewed Branko Milanovic, one of the world’s foremost authorities on inequality. Our conversation moved freely from global trends in inequality over the past quarter-century to the rise…
Podcast: Inequality, global and Canadian
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/podcast150320-inequality.mp3 I have two guests to talking about inequality today. First up is Branko Milanovic, who speaks with me about global inequality as well as the rise of a global…
Minimum wage workers not the only ones getting screwed
I have a populist piece in The Tyee this morning on how last week’s paltry $0.20 minimum wage increase in British Columbia actually reflects stagnant wages across the economy and…
Some notes on precarious work
Here’s a few more notes on a point that seems to be made with increasing frequency: working for a wage has always been precarious. The current focus on precarity as…
Podcast: First Nations and the political economy of land
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/podcast-150306-first-nations.mp3 This episode looks at the political economy of land in Canada and the Canadian state’s relationship with First Nations as mediated by land. I’m happy to bring together two…
Stagnant wages for over 80% of Canadian workers
Are wages in Canada stagnant or growing? The short answer is another question: do you live in an oil boom province? There’s a fairly common meme that while Canada, like…
Syriza buys four months of breathing room
Belatedly, here is an article I wrote on Greece’s agreement with the Eurozone for Ricochet. It focuses on the next four months with their opportunities and pitfalls. Given that the…
Podcast: Leo Panitch on Syriza and Greece
https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/podcast150220-leo-panitch.mp3 This week I’ve devoted the entire show to discussing the most recent developments in Greece. While there is a great deal of day-to-day drama at the level of the…
Creditors forcing rapprochement within Syriza?
I’m starting to cautiously think that the Varoufakis and Lapavitsas “approaches” to the crisis might end up not too far away from each other even though the strategic direction they…
Jason Kenney gets a growth portfolio
Jason Kenney has long been one of Stephen Harper’s trusted lieutenants and after yesterday’s cabinet reshuffle, he is now Minister of National Defence. In Harperland, this is a decisive promotion:…
Media talks debt
How to characterize the mainstream media reaction to the unfolding debt negotiations between Greece and Europe (not the financial press mind you, which knows what it’s about though sides largely…